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With the fleet already reduced to 11 boats as a result of the crash in Auckland between the French DS Automobiles crew and New Zealand’s Black Foils, which put both boats out of action, the question on everyone’s lips is whether the race management will run racing in split flights or as one 11-boat fleet.
After the crash on the Saturday in Auckland the fleet was split for Sunday’s racing. However, this caused a huge inequality in the points scoring between the two days – with a disproportionately small number of points available on the second day – because the split-fleet scoring system was designed to be used for a full event rather than just one day.
With Friday’s practice day likely to take place in similar conditions to the rest of the weekend it is possible we could see split fleets trialled then, to give the race management team a chance to further assess the conditions and the racing area.
Local hero Tom Slingsby and his BONDS Flying Roos crew come into the event as strong favourites. The Aussies won in Auckland after outwitting Dylan Fletcher’s Emirates Great Britain and Diego Botin’s Spanish Los Gallos in the three-boat final, and nobody knows the complexities of Sydney Harbour better than Slingsby, who grew up sailing there.
Last season, however, the 2012 Laser Olympic gold-medallist had to settle for third at his home event behind event-winner Fletcher, and second-placed Giles Scott at the wheel of the Canadian NorthStar F50.
While the BONDS Flying Roos skipper will no doubt be angling to avenge that home town loss with a repeat of the form that saw his team prevail in Auckland, Fletcher too will be keen to embarrass the local favourites on their own waters, with a repeat of the Brits’ Season 5 performance. It’s also worth remembering that these two teams are tied on points at the top of the overall Season 6 leaderboard.
But there will be no time for battling with individual teams this weekend and the focus will – as ever – be on starting well, sailing cleanly, and doing enough over the fleet race series to make the top-three final.
Keep an eye out also for the Spanish, who battled technical issues with their newly repaired F50 in Auckland, but still made it into the final – albeit that they finished fourth behind the French at the end of the fleet racing. After missing out on points at the opening event in Perth, Australia after damage to their foil control system during training saw them forced out of the regatta, the Los Gallos crew are ravenous for Season 6 points.
In the absence of two of the top teams – the Black Foils and DS Automobiles – this weekend the Spanish will be keen to capitalise with another event final appearance that could move them up the overall standings from their current sixth position.
Meanwhile, the league’s other Australian skipper – Nathan Outteridge, at the helm of the Swedish Artemis F50 – will want to key into any local support from the sailing-savvy Sydney crowd to help him find a way into his first event final since returning to SailGP at the start of this season. The Swedish-flagged team currently sits in fourth place overall – two points adrift of Quentin Delapierre’s sidelined French crew in third.
Speaking of the French, there has been no ruling announced yet on how Delapierre’s team might be allocated redress points for any events they miss while their boat is being repaired. Under the amended SailGP rules, up to six points per event can be awarded. Presumably this will be given consideration at the end of this weekend’s event.
Meanwhile, American fans will be praying that Taylor Canfield’s much-improved US SailGP Team will be able to continue their run of new-found form, which sees them in fifth place in the overall standings after finishing fifth in Perth and seventh in Auckland.
Nipping at their heels are likely to be Erik Heil’s seventh-placed Germany by Deutsche Bank, as well as Nicolai Sehested’s Danish ROCKWOOL Racing – who will be hoping to leverage the benefits of the team’s recent purchase by American Magic.
